readx; At two o'clock, the city of Nanjing was completely nightfall. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 However, the city is still brightly lit, and the market is more bustling and noisy than during the day. Especially on the Qinhuai River, the boat carrying the singer is floating everywhere to solicit customers, and the guests only need to spend a few taels of silver to let the boat rock to a secluded place in the middle of the river, and slowly enjoy this long night of drunken dreams and death. When these merry-seekers laughed uncontrollably, did they ever think that just a few hundred miles away, the iron cavalry of the rebels was ravaging the people there, and that the same fate might befall them one day?

In the lobby of the military headquarters in the imperial city, there is a different atmosphere. Chang Yinxu, the fat Nanjing garrison and Huaiyuan Marquis, sat in the center, the left was Hu Yingtai, the secretary of the Nanjing Military Department and the counselor of the aircraft, and the first was Cao Wenzhao, who had just arrived in Nanjing. Dozens of civil and military officials sat in columns, on the left were the civil officials of the household department and the military department, and on the right were the military attaches of the governor's office of the five armies and the various guard offices.

Seeing that everyone had arrived, Hu Yingtai and Chang Yinxu whispered a few words, then got up to introduce Cao Wenzhao to everyone, and introduced the officials present to Cao Wenzhao one by one, but did not say anything about the secret purpose.

Cao Wenzhao had to keep saluting everyone, and the civil officials did not need to say anything, and the military generals could not raise their heads in front of them; Even if it is a military general, it is either a governor or a chief military officer, and all of them have a higher official quality than Cao Wenzhao, not to mention those who have military positions. Everyone didn't know the purpose of Cao Wenzhao's visit, although they had heard of Guanning Tieqi, but after knowing that he was only a deputy commander-in-chief, they had the intention of being sluggish.

After all the introductions, Hu Yingtai said slowly: "General Cao is here to follow the secret decree of the Holy Lord, to control the officers and soldiers of the guards in Nanjing. In other words, including the Hou Ye and the official, they all have to listen to General Cao's dispatch. Next, I would like to ask General Cao to talk about his views on the situation in Nanjing. ”

This passage was full of irony, and everyone was taken aback at first, and then they exploded and discussed: "How could the Holy One make such a will? Let a deputy general guard restrain us, what are you kidding, why is he? ”

Cao Wenzhao suddenly felt very embarrassed, knowing that everyone was not convinced by him at all. He couldn't help but complain in his heart, because the emperor's will was originally a secret decree, and it was said that it would be conveyed to the two responsible persons. If the two of them really cooperated with him, they should still mobilize the Nanjing officers and troops in the capacity of Nanjing garrison and counselor, and he would not encounter any resistance. It's good now, Hu Yingtai came up and pushed Cao Wenzhao out, although there is a holy decree, how can everyone be convinced?

But Cao Wenzhao is burdened with a heavy responsibility, and he has come here, so how can he easily retreat. Therefore, he had to get up, first bow deeply to everyone, and then said sincerely: "When the end is coming, the saint repeatedly advises: the first priority is to ensure the safety of Nanjing, and under this premise, we should support the northern battlefield as much as possible, so that the rebels can be exposed to the enemy, and they cannot take care of each other, so that the rebellion can be put down as soon as possible." In the opinion of the last general, the city of Nanjing is dangerous, the city wall is strong, and there is a moat of the Yangtze River, and it is impossible for the rebels to attack the city unless they are crazy. Therefore, it seems that we should take the initiative to seek out the enemy..."

Before Cao Wenzhao could finish speaking, one of the generals below immediately interrupted him coldly and said, "General Cao has just arrived, and he is not very clear about the movements of the rebels nearby. In the past few days, the rebels have already come twice! ”

This time it was Cao Wenzhao's turn to be stunned. Hu Yingtai said proudly: "General Cai, tell General Cao about our defense of the city!" ”

The general soldier surnamed Cai gushed out. Cao Wenzhao listened carefully, it turned out that there were two rebel forces approaching Waiguo from the southwest of Nanjing City a few days ago, and the defenders immediately opened fire and released birds and guns when they found out, but the enemy did not dare to get too close, and retreated with an arrow at the city.

Cao Wenzhao frowned and asked, "Coming from the southwest of Nanjing City, it means that this rebel army crossed the river from the upper reaches of Nanjing. How many rebels are there? ”

At this time, Cai Zongbing was stammered, and only after a while did he smile dryly: "The rebels are very cunning with soldiers, and there are only a few dozen people who come to attack the city in front, but who knows how many of them will follow?" ”

Cao Wenzhao understood as soon as he heard it, and said slowly: "In the opinion of the last general, the main force of the rebel army is divided into three major departments, namely Hong Chengchou in the middle road, Gao Yingxiang in the west road, and the 'thirteen families' in the east road. The main forces of these three rebels are now in the north, and there will definitely not be any extra troops to attack Nanjing, those dozens of people are just suspicious soldiers, if they go out of the city to pursue at that time, it would be good to capture them all. ”

In fact, Cao Wenzhao's analysis was reasonable, but when Cai Zongbing heard it, he was slapping him, and he said: "General Cao is too arbitrary." Wherever the rebels went, they often coerced the people into the army, maybe they pulled up a large army? ”

Cao Wenzhao just wanted to say that even if there is such a "big army", it is absolutely vulnerable, but unexpectedly, another military general stood up and said: "What General Cai said is extremely true. In the past few days, no less than 1,000 officers and soldiers from all over the country have fled from Jiangbei to Nanjing, and they all say that the rebels are elusive and often deceive the enemy to win the city gates, and we cannot be fooled by this. ”

Cao Wenzhao had already chatted with Huang Degong and Weng Yu before, and knew that these officers and soldiers who were defeated in Nanjing had actually never fought at all, but when they heard that the rebels were about to fight, they were so frightened that they gave up their defenses and fled south desperately. However, Huang Degong and Weng Yu did not attend this meeting, and what he said was also unfounded, so he had to sit back in his seat.

Later, a number of military generals spoke, saying that the rebels were coveting Nanjing, and it was only advisable to hold on to the city and resolutely oppose going out of the city to fight. After talking for a long time, there was no one to support the attack, Cao Wenzhao became the commander of the light pole, nominally controlling the generals, but in fact, none of them let him control it, and he couldn't help but sweat on his head.

Seeing this, Hu Yingtai sneered: "In General Cao's opinion, how to deal with these rebels who attacked Nanjing?" ”

Cao Wenzhao had no choice but to reply: "When the last general crossed the river today, he saw that there were many civilian boats coming and going in the river. If the rebels want to cross the river, they can only rely on robbing civilian boats, so it is better to temporarily control civilian boats, and they are not allowed to sail until the rebellion is quelled. ”

Unexpectedly, this sentence stabbed the hornet's nest, and almost everyone spoke out against it. A household servant snorted coldly and said, "General Cao is too taken for granted. Without these civilian ships, how would the rice, salt, tea and other materials from the south of the Yangtze River be transported to the north? If you really do what you say, the court will not be able to get supplies, and how can you quell the rebellion? ”

Cao Wenzhao was speechless for a while. Seeing that the time was ripe, Hu Yingtai smiled and said, "General Cao should now understand the actual difficulties of the Nanjing official army. Why don't you ask the general to play together with the Hou Ye and the official, and stick to the city first? ”

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